


Better

by sabinelagrande



Series: Abide [2]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Dom Mystique, Dom/sub, F/M, Femdom, M/M, Multi, Punishment, Questionable 4AM Translations, Sub Charles Xavier, Sub Erik Lehnsherr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-11
Updated: 2012-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-29 08:56:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/318038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's really strange for Erik not to be the one getting punished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better

It's about 8:05; Erik was supposed to be in Raven's room at 8 o'clock sharp, which means he's right on time. He prefers to be just late enough to piss her off, because Erik quite likes to see her that way, but not late enough to get punished for it.

He knocks and enters, and Raven is leaning against the wall; she looks very annoyed, more than she should be for a little thing like being five minutes late. "Hello," Erik says carefully.

"Hey," Raven says, pursing her lips.

It's on the tip of Erik's tongue to ask what he's done wrong, but he scans the room first. "Where's Charles?"

"I don't know," she says.

Erik frowns. Charles is hardly ever late to anything important, and for Raven he's always early. "That's not good."

"Oh," Raven says, drawing it out, "it is _very_ bad for him."

"Do you want me to go find him?" Erik offers.

"No," Raven says, her arms crossed, and she's as angry as Erik has ever seen her. "He's got ten minutes. If he gets here by then, he's allowed to make it up to me."

"And if he doesn't?" Erik asks.

"Then I'm probably going to take it out on you," she says; upon consideration, Erik can think of worse ways to spend an evening. Her face hardens. "And then he's going to get it."

Ten minutes pass.

"Get on your knees," she snaps, and Erik does.

\--

It's several, several hours later, and Erik is in bed; he's sort of tangled up with Raven, the way they fell asleep after she beat the holy hell out of him.

«Erik,» someone is saying to him. «Erik, wake up.»

Erik turns his head, looking at the clock with one eye closed, but he can't make sense of any of the numbers. " _Vos?_ " he slurs.

«Erik, _vakhn_ ,» the voice insists, «fucking _vakhn_ , Erik.»

" _Neyn,_ " he protests.

«Erik,» Charles pleads. «Erik, please, I've made a terrible mistake.»

"Yes, you have," he says. He groans, stretching. "And your Yiddish is terrible, too."

«I forgot all about it,» Charles says, and his panic comes through very clearly even though he's using telepathy. «I didn't remember until _just now_ , Erik. She's absolutely going to kill me.»

"Are you talking to Charles?" Raven mutters; Erik murmurs an affirmative. "Tell him I said fuck him."

"Raven says fuck you," Erik says.

«I heard,» Charles says miserably.

"You're fucked," Erik tells him, yawning.

«Believe me, I know,» he sighs, sounding defeated. «Go back to sleep. I'll- I'll deal with it in the morning.»

"Mmhm," Erik answers; Raven is already snoring, and it's about thirty seconds before he falls asleep again.

\--

Charles is not exactly "dealing with it" in the morning; what he's doing is more correctly characterized as "being terrified" or perhaps "completely overreacting." When Erik walks into the kitchen for breakfast, he stops short, because Charles is kneeling by the fucking table. Alex is making eggs, and when Erik looks at him in confusion, he throws up his hands. Darwin comes in and kisses Alex on the cheek; he catches sight of Charles, and he looks at Alex and Erik in complete shock. Now Darwin and Alex are both looking at Erik expectantly, like he's supposed to know what's going on, and Erik can't do anything but shrug.

Raven walks in on their silent conversation, frowning at all of them suspiciously; when she looks around them and spots Charles, she just shuts her eyes and rubs at her forehead with one hand. She puts an orange and a piece of toast in Erik's hands and shoos him out of the kitchen, and Erik has no idea what happens after that.

He doesn't see her again until well into the afternoon; she's in the lounge, lying on the couch, her head hanging over the arm.

"That looks uncomfortable," Erik says, from the doorway.

"Come here," she says, raising her arm and pointing down at the couch. He considers making her work for it, having her force him into it, but she looks at him upside down, an exasperated expression on her face. "Erik," she whines, "don't give me this today. Get over here or leave me alone."

He goes to her, sitting down and letting her sprawl across him; she grabs his arm, putting it around herself and lacing their fingers together, keeping him close.

"I don't know what to do about Charles," she complains. "I have to punish him, and I can't decide how."

Erik raises an eyebrow. "This can't be the first time. Surely you have some idea."

"But it always _sucks_ ," she moans. "When you do something wrong, I just beat you until you learn," she says; Erik's got a scar on his thigh that lets him know how very true that is. "With Charles, I'd have to hit him harder than he needs to get hit. And if scold him-" She sighs. "You don't know what he's like. He takes it _so_ seriously, and it's so easy to go too far with him." She waves her hand. "And then he thinks I don't love him, and-" She makes a frustrated noise. "I don't know what to do."

This is one of the things that perplexes him most about Raven; when they're not in a scene, she doesn't seem to give a damn about how toppy she seems. He's been with tops who would have beaten him just for thinking that they might have doubts like this, and Raven is sitting here spilling them out, totally unconcerned about whether it lessens her image. It's backwards, but that only makes him respect her more; she knows she's got it, and she doesn't need to prove it to anybody.

Erik doesn't know how or if he should respond; he doesn't have any contributions to make. It's times like this that remind him that, despite the difference in their ages, he really doesn't have any more experience than she does.

"Why is he so afraid of you?" Erik asks, because it's been bothering him all day.

Raven gives him a look. "Why shouldn't he be afraid of me?"

"That's not what I mean," he says, shaking his head. "Charles is Charles. Charming people is basically what he does, but he's not even trying to talk you into forgiving him."

She sighs. "When we were younger," she says, "Charles used to go through tops like Kleenex. Charles could sell ice to an Eskimo, and whenever he got in trouble, he'd talk his way out of it. They always let him get away with it, so he never respected any of them. Until I collared him, I don't think anyone had ever punished him for anything." She laughs. "But I've been dealing with his shit since we were kids. It doesn't work on me anymore."

"I never thought of it that way," Erik admits.

"Charles wants really badly to be good, and he works really hard at it," she tells him. "He wants somebody to hold him accountable, and if I don't punish him, he'll punish himself ten times worse, _and_ I'll lose his respect." She snorts in frustration. "I hate it when he screws up. It's so _hard_."

Erik smirks at her. "You don't seem to mind when I screw up."

She grins. "That's because you're bad, and you don't want to be good. The hard part is rewarding you." She takes him by the collar, pulling him down and kissing him. After she lets him go, she looks up at him contemplatively. "I _think_ I have an idea," she says, "but I don't know if it's going to work." She squirms around, laying her head in his lap. "Stroke my hair and tell me a story. Something happy."

He pets her, carding his hand gently through her hair. "I don't know that I know any happy stories."

"Then read me something," she instructs. "I think Hank left _Submissives Home Journal_ on the end table. There's something in there about Cary Grant. Read me that."

Erik raises an eyebrow. "Hank reads _Submissives Home Journal_?"

"God bless him, I think he's trying to learn to be normal," she says, snuggling in closer. "He gets it sent in under Sean's name."

"That's not going to end well," Erik says, reaching for the magazine.

"Yeah, but it'll be really funny," she tells him. "Now read to me."

He leafs through the magazine, looking for the right page. "'Archie Leach', by Cary Grant," he begins.

"I didn't know he wrote it," she says, closing her eyes. "That's even better."

\--

It's 8 o'clock sharp that night, and Erik is actually on time, for once. Even so, they've still started without him; Charles is tied up in the corner, looking very worried. "Get undressed and get on the bed," she tells Erik, and he does it. This isn't the night to cross her, and this isn't really about him at all.

She's standing in front of Charles now, and Erik recognizes the look on his face; he's right on the point of begging. "Shh," she says, stroking his cheek. "Don't talk." She runs her fingers through his hair, and Charles leans into it. "You screwed up," she tells him, and he tenses. "I know you're not going to do it again. You know you're not going to do it again. We both know you're too good for that.

"So here's what's going to happen," she tells him. "You're going to keep doing good for me, but until I feel like you deserve it, Erik gets all your rewards." Erik and Charles both look at her in shock; it's simple, but devious. Charles still gets his reassurances, but he also gets his punishment, and Erik, well. This is all just a bonus for Erik.

Raven catches Charles's chin in her hand. "Look me in the eye, because you have to understand something," she says. "Erik is not doing this to you. I am. If you start blaming Erik for this, then nobody gets anything, and I _will_ find another punishment for you. Nod if you understand me."

And this is another point that makes Erik respect her; she plays her games with him and Charles, but she's very clear on the point that they're not to play games with each other. If she pits them against each other, it's because she knows they love each other enough to handle it, not because she wants to keep them apart.

That's no excuse not to make the most of it, though. It's kind of fun to fuck with Charles's head.

Charles nods, and Raven lets him go, kissing him on the top of the head. She turns her attention back to Erik. "Up against the headboard," she says, stripping out of her clothes. He already knows what's coming; he gets into position, and when she crawls onto the bed and settles herself between his legs, her back to his front, he wraps his arms around her. "Make me come," she says, reaching back to circle his neck with her arms. " _Slowly_."

Oh, she is still really pissed at him, because this is Charles's very favorite game. Erik doesn't really have the patience, would much rather have her just throw him down and fuck him hard, but Charles will hold her and touch her and _worship_ her for as long as she'll let him. He can see the disappointment and frustration on Charles's face already, and it's only going to get worse.

Her skin is still pale- again, this is for Charles, not him- and it's totally smooth underneath his fingers. She sighs as he slides his hands over her body; he tries to think about how Charles would do it, where he'd start, but that just ends up seeming too mean even for him. Charles is slow and subtle, but Erik never has been, especially not when it comes to sex, and trying to pretend otherwise would be kind of a slap in the face to Charles.

The first thing Erik does is skim his hands up her sides and up onto her breasts; she groans in satisfaction as he kneads them gently, his palms rubbing over her nipples. "Erik," she moans, tilting her head to the side so that her neck is stretched out for him. He kisses all the way down it, stopping to suck at the sensitive point where it joins her shoulder, and bites all the way back up it, right up to her earlobe.

It's kind of hard to remember that Charles is even there, what with the way Raven is melting in his arms, but when Erik looks up, he's sitting there looking devastated. For not the first time, Erik hopes Raven knows what the hell she's doing, because this is seriously getting to Charles, way more than Erik expected.

Apparently that's too much time spent focusing on Charles, because Raven slaps him in the back of the head to get his attention. The last thing he wants is for this to turn into some kind of chain-reaction punishment that'll leave everybody mad at everybody, so he redoubles his efforts, concentrating entirely on her. One of his hands is moving down, now; he trails the backs of his fingers down the soft skin of her stomach. It keeps moving on to her thigh, sliding down towards her knee and back up, along the sensitive skin there.

She moves her head, and they're kissing now, slow and gentle but always under her control; she sighs into his mouth when his fingers finally move all the way inward, slipping in where she's wet and soft, stroking her. "Faster," she says, very softly, as if she's trying to keep Charles from hearing, and Erik is sort of relieved, for his sake and Charles's. He's hard now, and it's so difficult not to thrust against her, especially now that she's moving against his hand, pressing down to get more of his fingers inside.

Her kisses are getting harder, more demanding; she reaches for the hand that's covering her breast and puts her own on top of it, squeezing harder, rougher. Slow is officially over now, and Erik couldn't be happier. He bites at her throat as she moves, and when she comes she thrashes against him, her head thrown back against his shoulder.

Erik finally thinks to look up again, and Charles doesn't look as bad as he did- he still looks completely miserable, but it's better, like he's coming to terms with it.

"Put your hands on the pillows," Raven says, turning towards him, "and do _not_ move them."

Erik's eyes widen; either Raven is fucking _livid_ or Charles was an absolute saint today, but he does exactly what she says. This almost never happens, and he's always amazed when it does, but Raven leans down and takes his cock into her mouth, and Erik tries very hard not to come right then.

To be perfectly honest, Raven isn't the most skilled person who's ever done this to Erik, but she is so fucking _enthusiastic_ that it doesn't matter at all. That's especially true right now, when she's working her tongue and sucking and wrapping her hand around it and moving that too, and Erik is going to fucking cry if this goes on much longer.

Thank god Raven remembers that this is a reward and not a punishment; she pulls off of him, her hand still moving, and looks up at him. "Ask me for what you want."

Erik doesn't like to beg, but he's having a really hard time remembering that right now. "Please," he says tightly. "Please let me come."

She sucks at the head of his cock. "Where?"

 _Fuck it_ , Erik thinks, because at this point, there's no reason not to go for broke. "Your mouth," he says. "Please let me come in your mouth."

She grins, sliding her lips down around him and back off again. "Do it," she says, about thirty seconds before it would have happened anyway, permission or no. Erik clutches at the pillows so hard that he's surprised he doesn't rip them right open, and it feels like he comes forever.

Raven lets him go, moving up his body and kissing him; he can feel her grinning against his lips. It's a good little while before he can do anything but blink at her. "Thank you," he finally remembers to say.

She smiles, kissing him again. Her smile turns sort of sad, and Erik realizes what has to come next. He's about to get up and go collect Charles, but she puts a hand on his chest to stop him, shaking her head.

She gets up, unties Charles, and leads him to the bed; Erik can see he's been crying, and when Raven points Charles at him and looks at him significantly, Erik takes him into his arms, kissing him softly. She walks away, under the guise of doing- something, cleaning up or coiling the rope or whatever, but Erik can plainly see that she's just trying to get her shit together enough to deal with everything.

She takes a deep breath and climbs back into the bed, taking Charles back from Erik and putting her arms around him. He huddles up next to her, and it doesn't really click for Erik until that moment: Raven really is everything to Charles, and any disapproval from her really will crush him. Their relationship is a little fucked up to start with, seeing as how she's his top _and_ pretty much his only family, but it's deeper than that. And Erik thought _he_ was a handful, but at least he's simple; Charles isn't.

"It's okay," she says quietly, holding him close, and she looks just about as miserable as Charles does. Erik knows she'd love to take it all back right now, rescind his punishment entirely, but it doesn't work that way; she's decided, and even if she's gone too far, she's still got to stick to it. "You're still my Charles," she tells him, kissing the top of his head. "My sweet Charles. My good Charles."

He says something that Erik can't hear, something muffled by the way he's pressed up against her. "No, no, don't say that," she says, stroking his hair. "You don't have to do anything for me but be good. I know you can do that. If you can do that, I'll never have to punish you again."

Erik kind of feels like he's intruding, at this point, but Raven motions at him, and he wraps his arms around Charles, grounding him. "Shh," she says. "Everything is alright. Everything is fine. You did so good for me. You're going to learn your lesson, and it'll be over. Just like that."

Charles nods his head; he's sniffling a little, and Erik really hates to see him like this. Still, he already knew it was Raven and Charles when he signed up; he can stick it out with the two of them, good or bad, or he can leave.

One of those options is really a lot better than the other one.

\--

That night is really kind of terrible, because Charles is an absolute wreck, and nobody gets much sleep. But then they wake up in the morning, and something has happened: Charles is better. He's not scared or worried, and he certainly isn't kneeling in random places waiting for Raven to happen by. Raven is better, too; when she meets Charles in the hallway, she grabs him by the shoulder and kisses him, and neither of them look sad.

And everybody can take a deep breath.

And pretty soon, everything is okay.


End file.
